A Tzaddik in Our Midst: R’ Pinchas Mordechai Solow, zt”l by Rabbi Dovid Bender

IN MEMORY

A Tzaddik in Our Midst R’ Pinchas Mordechai Solow, zt”l

By Rabbi Dovid Bender

Pinchas Mordechai Solow, zt”l, was a real person. There was no fakeness to him.

The Chofetz Chaim writes that when a person opens his mouth, he has to be careful about ten things. The first one is lashon hara, the second is rechilus, the third one is sheker, and last week we learned about the next thing to be careful about: chanufa, flattery. Flattery comes from being fake.

But R’ Pinchas was the opposite of fake. He was genuine and real.

R’ Pinchas was zecher tzaddik l’vracha. I’m using the word “tzaddik” because there were many choshuvim who called him “tzaddik.” At the levaya, the choshuvim of Far Rockaway were there to hear about him and to be melave him. Rav Dov Bressler, Rav Yehoshua Kurland, Rav Yisroel Meir Blumenkrantz, and Rav Shaul Chill all spoke at his levaya. So did his sister, and his daughter, and Mr. Barry Jacobson spoke as well.

R’ Pinchas got up every morning, at 5 o’clock in the morning, to learn Torah. He then davened at Rav Blumenkrantz’s shul and said brachos out loud for the kehilla. He almost literally opened the doors to the shul each morning. Every morning, he said brachos out loud, clearly.

He would go to Sh’or Yoshuv, to Rav Kurland’s chaburah at night twice a week for over twenty years, to learn.

Rav Kurland recalls, “He knew Mishnayos so well that numerous times during the shiur he would ask questions from different Mishnayos being that he was so fluent with different Mishnayos.”

Rav Kurland also said that R’ Pinchas had a transparent neshama. He was the “real deal” and a true eved

Hashem.

He was very close to Rav Dov Bressler from HILI and gained a tremendous amount of Torah from him. He remembered Rav Bressler’s divrei Torah from years before. In fact, if Rav Bressler would give over a different approach on a certain inyan from the last time he spoke about that inyan, R’ Pinchas would point it out.

He was also very close and gained a lot of Torah from Rav Yisroel Meir Blumenkrantz. He was so thirsty for Torah.

His learning was done without any fanfare. Sometimes, you could get fooled and miss his gadlus, beWe at Darchei Torah saw this; he learned in the beis medrash or in HILI.

In between Mincha and Maariv, in HILI, where he used to daven, there is a few minutes break. During the break, he would go to the bima and he would say Tehillim out loud, word by word.

Much of his davening was out loud – especially his brachos during Shacharis. He was unashamed of his connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. On Friday night, during kabbalas Shabbos, he would dance with such love, a burst of genuine excitement to greet the Shabbos queen. He did this for years – before anyone else would dance during kabbalas Shabbos.

R’ Pinchas had a transparent neshama. He was the “real deal” and a true eved Hashem.

cause from the outside he could have appeared as a poshute Yid. But the opposite was true. His neshama was shining. He lived a life on a different level; he didn’t care about externals. His only concern was for Hashem and His Torah. As Rav Pinchas Wachsman told me, he always felt that he had a

heilige neshama.

R’ Pinchas always came early to davening, and he utilized the time to learn Mishnayos. He learned, b’chavrusa, with R’ Yaakov Berman.

The last day of his life, he went on a vacation to Pennsylvania. He and his wife and daughter went to Lakewood for Shabbos – the last Shabbos of his life. On Sunday morning, he davened in Lakewood and went to learn in Bais Medrash Govoha. Then he went shopping with his wife. They settled into the hotel later that day and then R’ Pinchas drove 20 minutes for Mincha/Maariv in Yardley, Pennsylvania. On the way back, he was killed in a car crash. That’s how he spent the last day of his life. His last act was about making sure he got a minyan.

A few days before he passed away, R’ Pinchas told Reb Daniel Waldman, at the Kaminsky wedding on Wednesday night, that because his job at the Board of Ed doesn’t start for a few weeks, he wanted to learn in Kollel for a month. That’s what his life was about. Always trying to find time to learn.

He always seemed to be running – running to do mitzvos, running to help out.

One day, he went to get the mop from the janitor’s closet in Yeshiva Darchei Torah, so he could clean the floor at HILI, where he davened. He looked forward to making sure the shul looked clean. He happily cleaned up – he was so happy to help and do for others.

Rav Dov Bressler, his rav, recalls that he was the leader in HILI. He was gavoah m’kol ha’am figuratively and spiritually. On Simchas Torah, he was the main dancer in shul. He kept on dancing and was the leader of the dancing. Eizehu ashir ha’sameach b’chelko, he was content and happy with whatever he was doing. If the shul needed someone to daven for the amud, he was happy to do it; if someone else wanted to do it, he was happy for them to lead the kehilla. Whatever was needed to be done, he was happy to do.

R’ Pinchas lived on Hurley and Gateway for a while. One of his neighbors, Rabbi Avi Indich, told me that every time he saw him, R’ Pinchas used to always have a vort to share with him. Rav Uri Orlian said the

same thing – that the divrei Torah were always rolling off his mouth. Whether it was his own or someone else’s divrei Torah, he was always eager to share them. At times, when he would see Rav Shlomo Avigdor Altusky, he would share divrei Torah with him and would ask Rav Altusky to share divrei Torah with him.

Reb Dovid Soclof told me that the night before he made his sons’ brissim, there would be a knock at the door. It was R’ Pinchas. He was there to say Shema with the baby. No fanfare, no accolades. He wanted to do what was right.

He was a very caring person. No one ever heard a bad word out of his mouth – certainly not a word of lashon hara. He was a happy person, always with a smile on his face, always freilech. People loved him.

His wife, Golda, may she have arichus yamim, told me that his biggest “problem” was that he cared so much. He would take $20 to davening and come home with nothing left. He used to give it all out to tzedakah. At one point, they almost went into debt because he would want to give so much to tzedakah. But that was his mahus, his essence. He was so giving, so caring, so selfless. He had such a big heart.

When talking about R’ Pinchas, people are using the term a “lamedvav tzaddik.” Now, we don’t really know who the lamed-vav tzaddikim are in every generation, but the fact that they feel, emotionally, that R’ Pinchas was one of the them speaks volumes about his character and about his neshama.

His name was Pinchas Mordechai. Pinchas, in the Torah, did what was right for Hakadosh Baruch Hu and didn’t care about what would happen. He had to kill Zimri, and he risked his life to do so. Mordechai HaYehudi also put his life in danger by not bowing down to Haman – he did the right thing.

R’ Pinchas Mordechai did the right thing – no matter what. Perhaps it looked “funny” to some but his desire to do ratzon Hashem was foremost on his mind. He said brachos out loud – maybe some people thought it was interesting to do, but R’ Pinchas did what was right. Every word he said out loud, clearly. If something needed to be cleaned in HILI or seforim had to be put away, he did it. He didn’t have any airs about him. He wasn’t concerned about what people thought. He was so thirsty to be meshamesh and do what was right.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, R’ Pinchas did not have a formal yeshiva education. However, he saved up some money and took it to HaRav Shlomo Freifeld, zt”l, and asked HaRav Freifeld if he could find a chavrusa for him. HaRav Freifeld told him, “Don’t worry; you can learn with me.” And they did. They learned together. Sometime later, R’ Pinchas realized that whatever money he gave to the Rosh Yeshiva was certainly not a lot – HaRav Freifeld was not doing it for pay – but he had such a desire to learn.

R’ Pinchas was devoted to his wife. They were always there for each other. Together, they were a very special couple and very good parents to their wonderful daughter, Rochel Leah.

Although R’ Pinchas lived his life “under the radar,” his levaya was packed. So many anashim choshuvim came to be melave him and so many people in the community wanted to give him his kavod acharon. They recognized how he epitomized what it meant to be a true Torah Yid.

He was a role model for us. R’ Pinchas taught us how to “chap a rein” time – learning Mishnayos, saying Tehillim, speaking and hearing divrei Torah. He didn’t let time go to waste.

R’ Pinchas showed us what was important in this world. He did what was right and what was real. We can learn from his beautiful ways.

May the lessons learned from this article be an aliyah for the neshama of Pinchas Mordechai ben Reuven Moshe, a”h.